UP mathematicians developing Baybayin translator
XpatPinoy | UP mathematicians developing Baybayin translator, app | The University of the Philippines-Diliman mathematicians are upgrading their Baybayin translator system and planning a two-way translator and mobile app.
According to UP, masters student Rodney Pino and associate professors Renier Mendoza and Rachelle Sambayan developed an algorithm to convert a photograph of a set of text into binary data, which is then run through a support vector machine (SVM) character classifier to automatically determine whether the characters are Baybayin or Latin
Paragraph-level OCR could differentiate full blocks of Baybayin and Latin letters in a text picture.
They are creating a full-way translator.
“We have a Baybayin character dataset—say A and BA. In a news release, Pino said that SVM employs techniques or mathematical approaches to separate the two datasets to determine characters BA and A. They have 110 paragraphs from different websites that feature either hand- or typewritten Baybayin, Latin, or both.
The OCR technology pronounces Baybayin characters on a page in Latin and transliterates the text.
Philippines mathematicians want the OCR system to analyze Baybayin words and phrases’ context.
They are also creating a two-way translator to translate Latin words with foreign sounds into Baybayin.
We’re improving our software to make it easier to use. Mendoza also wants to create a smartphone app that automatically and precisely translates Baybayin characters by hovering over the phone.
He added the OCR technology can’t discriminate between similar Baybayin characters like E and I and O and U, making it difficult to interpret words and sentences.
“Many of our words have Latin equivalents. The method we utilized shows all Baybayin word translations “Mendoza said.
The group hopes other researchers will study Baybayin to protect it.
Sambayan says recognizing and translating Baybayin is vital because many Filipinos can’t read or write it.
“We’re hoping that through this OCR system, we could preserve and pass on the knowledge of understanding Baybayin to future Filipino generations,” Sambayan added. (PNA)
